Wait Until You Hear How Much Work Went Into SNL’s Wes Anderson Parody

Literally was finished seconds before airing

If you thought SNL's spot-on Halloween parody of Wes Anderson was amazing, wait until you hear everything that went on behind the scenes.

In an incredibly detailed deconstruction, SNL director of photography Alex Buono explains the immense amount of creative brainstorming, set design, camera selection and last-second fixes it took to bring The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders to life. As one small example, on the day of the shoot, the team decided to extend one of the main sets, the kitchen, by an additional eight feet just to create a "more fun perspective shot."

The project's stress level is almost palpable, especially when Buono describes wrapping the clip the morning it was supposed to air … then realizing he needed to shoot more footage … then realizing there were errors in the final cut that would need to be fixed literally seconds before the trailer ran on national television.

Even if some of the technical description goes over your head, Buono's write-up is a rare and wonderful tour behind the scenes of SNL's creative-process pressure cooker. Hat tip to A.V. Club, via Pop Candy.